Catamount Core: N1

Animal agriculture is a significant portion of our national agricultural economy and foods of animal origin play a significant role in our global food system. A striking but lesser-known fact is that animal-derived food products have been an important factor in human evolution (e.g., eating meat has led to increases in the size of both the human body and brain). Current dietary patterns derive from the changes in food production that started with the industrial revolution and from the more recent construction of a global food economy. With increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, obesity, and food-borne diseases, animal products are coming under increasing scrutiny. Broad areas of focus reflect global patterns of consumption of meat, dairy, eggs, fish, and their products.

We will explore the connection between animal products, their nutritional attributes, and human and public perception. Particular emphasis will be placed on functional and value-added foods, biotechnology in animal agriculture, as well as animal product quality and safety issues. The course utilizes an interactive approach, involving a broad spectrum of methods including lectures to build fundamental knowledge, student forums to stimulate debate and understanding, individual and group assignments to develop key skills in writing and presenting, and the use of computer-aided learning.

Catamount Core: AH1 and D2

By the turn of the twenty-first century the inherited models for understanding photography and performance seemed outmoded and its very geography was constituted by a kind of provincialism. Critiques of photography’s history pointed out that it really only accounts for and can make sense of Euro-American phenomena; Any non-western work is considered a performance of Western society rather than presenting themselves to each other as they are. In response, scholarship and exhibitions about the cultural specificities of the medium’s history in the so-called Global South have become increasingly popular. But what are the ideological underpinnings of the "global turn" in the history of photography? What is the relationship between photography and performance, with the colonial, postcolonial, and neocolonial condition? What are the larger implications of reframing photography as a global and highly differentiated practice? Does an emphasis on difference fundamentally de-center established norms or does it in effect only reify problematic notions of the “other”? Or both? This course investigates these and related questions by focusing on recent artwork and scholarship about photography and performance art in Africa, the African Diaspora, Latin America, and Asia.

Catamount Core: AH2 (Spring 2025 only)

"O for a Muse of fire!" In this course we will explore Shakespeare's sources, inspirations, methods, and adaptations as he transformed raw materials from Greco-Roman literature into his own enduring plays. We begin by investigating Shakespeare's historical and cultural milieu, then reading the texts that he did from Plautus, Plutarch, and Ovid, and then diving into works from "The Comedy of Errors" to "Julius Caesar" to "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and beyond. Capstone activities include our own attempts to understand Shakespeare better by emulating him in playwriting and performance.

Catamount Core: D2

Over 27% of the U.S. population identifies has having one or more disabilities according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As such, it is important to explore how people with disabilities and those who identify as disabled are viewed and how perceptions around disability play a role in societal practices and inclusivity. This class will introduce you to frameworks, practices, and debates regarding the intersection between disability and ableism and how this space provides a platform for reproducing inequity. We will cover some of the history and language used by and about this community, various frameworks that seek to define disability, and what ableism is and the privilege it affords. This course will also offer opportunities to critically reflect on how you think about disability and what this means for you personally and professionally.

Catamount Core: WIL2

This course introduces students to a toolbox of research methods that researchers use to make sense of the world around them. Students will learn about a method by practicing it in “the field,” conducting their own analyses of results, and presenting findings in a variety of creative ways. We will consider the advantages and disadvantages of specific qualitative methods, as well as ways that researchers use multiple methods to achieve greater

understanding of their topic. The course is designed to prompt students to think critically about larger issues of the production of knowledge, epistemologies (how we know what we know), and socially constructed “truths.” We will critically evaluate the role of the researcher, power and positionality in the research process.

Catamount Core: SU

The circumpolar Arctic encompasses the Arctic Ocean and the vast boreal forests and tundra of northern portions of the United States, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Russia.  Once dismissed as a barren region of little interest, the Arctic is now at the center of scientific investigations on the effects of climate change on our natural world, as well as the influence of these changes on the indigenous people who have lived in the region for centuries and millennia.  The region has also reemerged as an “Eldorado” for natural resource extraction, including fossil fuel exploration, reigniting old sovereignty disputes and setting off a gold rush mentality in certain regions. This course seeks to introduce students to the physical, natural and human geographies of the circumpolar Arctic. We will explore the region’s past and present climate, the evolution of arctic landscapes and current changes in boreal, tundra and marine ecosystems.  We will also investigate human-environment interfaces including indigenous people’s experience of environmental changes, the renewed push for economic and industrial development in the North, and the new political realities in the Arctic.  The course will culminate with a model Arctic Council in which students will represent the interests of a member nation or a permanent participant.   

Catamount Core: D1, AH3

This course will focus on the construction of race, class, and gender in US media coverage of the January 1901 death of Britain’s Queen Victoria and the September 1901 assassination of US President William McKinley. These deaths came at a time when many middle- and upper-class Americans were particularly keen to cultivate a close Anglo-American relationship based on shared ideas about the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race and its “civilized” culture. Media coverage, as well as advertisements that accompanied the coverage, emphasized the positive attributes of Anglo-Saxon culture while also drawing a sharp line between Anglo-Saxons and white and non-white races. In the course, students will create an exhibit for display in Howe Library that surveys, contextualizes, and interprets this coverage for the UVM community.

Catamount Core: D2, AH3

Before the rise of European empires, large portions of Asia were under the control of a trio of expansive, powerful Islamic states, based in what is now Turkey, Iran, and India. These three early modern Islamic empires—the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Empires—were fierce rivals for territory, trade, and claims to global power. But all three also shared much, developing common idioms of art and literature, courtly authority, strategies for dealing with religious minorities, and more. In this course, we will explore the great Islamic empires of the early modern world, centering global history outside Europe, and examining the nature of empire before the rise of the West. This will be a team-taught course, with experts in Ottoman (Prof. Ergene) and Mughal (Prof. McGowan) history coming together to explore commonalities and divergences in this important era. Although listed as two sections, the course will function as a single unit, sharing the same materials and grading expectations; to explore materials, we will meet together as a group for some portions of classes, and divide into smaller groups for other portions. Course expectations include: participation in course discussions, informal reading responses, quizzes, two short papers, research proposal, and a final research project.

Catamount Core: D2, AH3

Before the rise of European empires, large portions of Asia were under the control of a trio of expansive, powerful Islamic states, based in what is now Turkey, Iran, and India. These three early modern Islamic empires—the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Empires—were fierce rivals for territory, trade, and claims to global power. But all three also shared much, developing common idioms of art and literature, courtly authority, strategies for dealing with religious minorities, and more. In this course, we will explore the great Islamic empires of the early modern world, centering global history outside Europe, and examining the nature of empire before the rise of the West. This will be a team-taught course, with experts in Ottoman (Prof. Ergene) and Mughal (Prof. McGowan) history coming together to explore commonalities and divergences in this important era. Although listed as two sections, the course will function as a single unit, sharing the same materials and grading expectations; to explore materials, we will meet together as a group for some portions of classes, and divide into smaller groups for other portions. Course expectations include: participation in course discussions, informal reading responses, quizzes, two short papers, research proposal, and a final research project.

Catamount Core: N1

Metagenomic analyses have established that viruses are Earth’s most abundant and diverse biological entities. Further, the sequencing of the human genome revealed that viruses and virus-like entities, together with related mobile genetic elements, make up more than half of it. These findings lead to a paradigm change: rather than being primarily perceived as pathogens, we now appreciate that viruses and related genetic elements are intertwined with the development and physiology of all known living entities – they are essential constituents of the biosphere. They are rooted in the pre-cellular world, have coevolved with cell-based biological entities, and such coexistence of cell-based organisms and viruses (and similar mobile genetic entities) has profoundly affected the evolution of presumably all cellular life forms. The overall goal of this course is to discuss this paradigm change: viruses should now be considered being overall positive genetic entities. They were not only essential for evolution, but they are also important during ontogenesis, and while some of them can temporarily act as pathogens, likely many more are either neutral or may actually help prevent diseases, for example by strengthening host physiology and immune functions. Notwithstanding the recent COVID-19 crisis and past and future more severe viral outbreaks, this course will thus focus on how securing sustainability of the human society and the biosphere requires an in-depth understanding of virus-host coexistence. Following a highly interactive approach (with group work, class discussions, etc), we will investigate why and how, rather than through inventions of ever novel and costly antiviral strategies (drugs, medical treatments, pesticides, etc), health and viability at all levels, from individual organisms to complete ecosystems, are likely best supported by preventing disequilibrium and by promoting homeostasis.

Catamount Core: N1

Have you ever wondered why some ice creams drip all over while others barely seem to melt? Or noticed that leftover sushi rice stays soft, while long grain rice gets hard? Or swapped baking soda for baking powder in a cookie recipe and found that your cookies were much browner than usual? Or felt like your mouth was on fire when you ate a chili pepper, yet your nose burns after eating spicy mustard? Or eaten a gluten-free bagel and wondered why it didn’t have the chewy qualities of one made with wheat flour? Everyone who cooks, bakes, or simply notices differences in the foods they eat is a scientist. In this course, we’ll use science to unlock the mysteries of food and cooking. Our goals will be to investigate the chemical, biological, and physical principles that underly why foods behave the way they do in the kitchen, and to look at how we can test these principles. The course is designed to be approachable regardless of your experience with the natural sciences. Food provides a familiar and relatable context to explore scientific principles for the first time, and people majoring in the natural sciences will have the chance to expand their knowledge and apply it in new ways. Assessments will help you develop your ability to critique and design experiments to test scientific principles we discuss, and to explain the science behind culinary phenomena to a general audience. Other skills you’ll build include finding appropriate sources and reading scientific papers. Hands-on activities will also allow you to see, feel, smell, and taste some of the scientific principles we discuss at work. Although this is not a cooking course, you can use what you learn to better understand recipes and come up with your own culinary creations.

Catamount Core: D1

It is well understood that race has shaped many American political institutions, as well as the political behavior of individuals. Race comes up a lot in conversations about American politics, so on one hand it is a familiar subject.  But there turn out to be a lot of quotations full of ideas and phrases about race that would be regarded by most Americans today as not just wrong but actually strange. And trying to study how race has influenced politics, one winds up spending just as much time putting the question the other way – watching as political actors build race and load it with meaning.  That is our primary focus: the ways political activity has constructed, unevenly and sloppily but with great force, not only racial categories but also changing definitions of what race itself actually is.

Our primary guides are two terrific books; we’ll also read a pile of primary documents and academic articles.  Of course, we will try to understand authors’ work on their own terms.  But because so much racial knowledge is subjective and relational, we will also pay regular attention to our personal responses to the material. And we’ll regularly “talk about talking” – confront directly vexing questions about what we think the “right” way is to discuss documents and arguments that can feel bizarre, painful, hilarious, frightening, or – to us – just plain wrongheaded.

Catamount Core: S1, SU

We all eat, but we often take this basic human need for granted, especially when we have plenty of food around us. This class will explore how social structures, institutional practices, and cultural constructs affect the food people eat. Students will examine the entire food system, tracing it from the seed to the fork. They will gain knowledge of how, where, and by whom food is produced and the influences shaping consumer food choices. Students will also investigate social and environmental issues associated with the food system and the ways inequalities affect people’s consumption choices.

Catamount Core: AH2

In this course we will take a trip through space and time, as we read works set in the City of Lights, the capital of the emerging modern world.  The streets, cathedrals, and monuments of Paris serve as the setting for novels and poems that paint a new portrait of the self in an emerging modern space.  Paris is the place where history and modernity meet, where dreams of love and fortune come true or fall through as these authors trace and react to the changes in the French capital in the modern period.   

Catamount Core: AH2

An exploration of the arts (primarily literary, but also music, film, and visual & performance art) from four revolutionary moments in Russian history: Peter the Great’s reforms and the 1825 Decembrist uprising; 1905 Revolution and Modernism; the Revolutions of 1917 and the avant-garde; the late-Soviet Glasnost’ period and nonconformist art. 

Catamount Core: AH2

War is “one of the major subjects and certainly one of the hardest to write truly,” wrote Ernest Hemingway. The aesthetics of this 1918 ambulance-driver-come-famous-author cast such a long shadow over American war fiction that even now, a century later, when you utter the words “war story,” most readers will think first of a sparely written tale of a soldier’s battlefield or aftermath horror. At the same time, the late 20^th and early 21^st century have witnessed an explosion of voices that challenge and enrich the question: What is American war fiction and how is it evolving? In this workshop course, students will start by examining the tropes and history of American war fiction since WW2, then read stories by a diverse range of writers, and then bring to the table their own war writing for class critique. Assignments include a short personal “My War Psychology” essay, a 10-12 page creative and/or critical workshop piece, and an interview and presentation of someone else’s war story. A revision and a final process letter will be due at the end of class.

Catamount Core: AH2

This course is essentially devoted to the study of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, which we will read in its entirety in light of recent scholarship and taking into account different commentaries and critical approaches. We will also read Dante’s Vita nuova and short excerpts from his unfinished treatise on language (De vulgari eloquentia), his book on political theory (Monarchia), and his philosophical compendium (Convivio), works that are essential for a fuller understanding of the Divine Comedy. In addition, we will read relevant excerpts from the Bible and from works by Virgil, Ovid, and the Troubadours. Basics of prosody and rhetoric will also be introduced, and reference will be made to a variety of literary theories of interpretation that are of relevance to Biblical, Classical, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, but great emphasis will be laid on close textual reading. Course goals and objectives 1) learning to analyze complex literary works in reference to the historical context that produced them 2) recognizing important literary trends, noting key distinctions and continuities among literary texts 3) engaging and developing critical thinking skills 4) investigating and engaging with moral issues connected to The Commedia that are still central to our common humanity. 5) applying the concept of “sustainability” to the analysis and study of forms of belief as well as literary structures 6) understanding “healing” and general health benefits derived from exposure to rhythms as found in poetic forms and artistic practices 7) comparing different English versions of a same Italian text.